


Remembrance of Storms Past

by B_Radley



Series: Gandalf's Way [6]
Category: Star Wars: Rebels, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Memories
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-09
Updated: 2016-05-09
Packaged: 2018-06-07 09:58:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6799273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/B_Radley/pseuds/B_Radley
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fulcrum and Spectre 2 remember a time before they had code names.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Remembrance of Storms Past

**Author's Note:**

> Well, time to jump back into writing. So many ideas, hopefully enough talent.
> 
> This is my attempt to add some more context to the Fulcrum/Ghosts relationships. I know that Ahsoka was supposed to not be a major driver of the plot of Rebels, but I wanted more than just the Gandalf moments.
> 
> We'll try this one; I may expand it to interactions with other crew members. Don't worry, there won't be a Zeb/Ahsoka belching contest.
> 
> Please enjoy, please comment. I still have time to find the number of that truck-driving school. Hopefully, I can figure out how to format it correctly.
> 
> No beta, any errors are mine.
> 
> Disclaimer: Star Wars is owned by Disney/Lucasfilm and Dave Filoni's Hat.
> 
> NOTE: Takes place immediately after Fire Across the Galaxy.
> 
> Some strong language.

Hera Syndulla walks through the silent corridors of Home One. It is late in the ship's night and most of the crew are at their stations or asleep. She is glad of the silence, as it gives her time to prepare for the coming conversation with Fulcrum - Ahsoka.

Her crew is resting or healing from their ordeal over Mustafar. Each in their own way. Karan is still in the medical bay, healing in body, if not in mind and soul. Ezra is with Kanan, trying to meditate about what transpired in the engine room of the Star Destroyer. Sabine, is of course, painting. Hera can only hope that she is on the _Ghost_ and not on Home One. She thinks that while Ahsoka might be amused and tolerant, Commander Jun Sato, the senior officer of this little fleet, might not be so accepting.

Zeb seems to have bonded well with the crews of the fleet. He is most probably on the lower decks in the crew's berth of one of the ships, swapping lies and drinks. Hopefully there is no Lasat opera involved.

Chopper is the most perplexing of her crew after their first encounter with Fulcrum face-to-face. Usually he can be found plotting some sort of semi-cruel joke on one of the kids, or galactic domination. When he first came on the _Ghost_ , and she picked up Chopper, Kanan was convinced that Chopper was a Sith Lord. Chopper spent most of his time trying to convince Hera and Kanan that they didn't need the interloper, usually with his shock prod on Kanan's part. Or parts. Hera thought that one of the reasons that Kanan recruited so hard for other crew was to take some of Chopper's ire off of him.

But after seeing Ahsoka greet Chopper, with what appeared to be great affection, he hasn't been his usual sociopathic self. He is almost solicitous of her and hard for Hera to find when she needs work on the _Ghost_ done.

She comes to a non-descript door. She checks her appearance; straightens her cap. She starts to knock on the door. Before she can, she hears Ahsoka's clear voice say, "Come in, Hera."

_Oh. Jedi. Not another one._

The door slides aside and she enters into a small, plain room. Ahsoka and (big surprise) Chopper are laughing together. Or what passes for Chopper's laughter

As she enters, she realizes that Ahsoka is running a towel over her damp lekku. Her armor and lightsabers are hanging neatly on a stand against the bulkhead. Her clothes are piled less neatly on the bunk. She is clad in a worn, threadbare robe with a hodgepodge of designs on the front of it. With a start, Hera realizes that it started life as a Jedi robe, complete with a hood with two holes for Togruta montrals. She realizes that it was a former robe. It only came down to just above Ahsoka's knees.

"Hey, Hera," Ahsoka says. "Chopper and I were just visiting the past."

"You two know each other?" Hera asks. She is poleaxed.

"Yep, we go way back. Back to the Clone Wars."

Hera notices a bit of a difference in Ahsoka's demeanor. She isn't the serene, authoritative figure from her past holocoms, or even their rare face-to-face meetings. She seems younger, her voice lighter, but with a sharp note of pain.

"I wouldn't have thought you were old enough to have fought in the Clone Wars," Hera muses.

"Some would argue that I wasn't. I was only fourteen and a Padawan when I was sent to the frontlines. One of the youngest Padawans on the line," she says with a distinctive note of pride."

"Have a seat, Hera. Chopper was good enough to to bring me some tea. Would you care for some?"

"No, thank you. You asked to see me?"

Ahsoka's mask came down again. Her voice has the calm authority of a leader of the Resistance against the Empire. "Yes, I did, Captain. Chop, could you excuse us, buddy?"

The use of her title and the fact that she asked Chopper to leave did not bode well for Hera. Hera thought that she could detect a bit of quiet mocking binary from the astromech as he left. Something like " _Ha! You're in trouble with my new best meat bag friend."_

_Ungrateful little asshole. See when your next oil bath occurs._

She looks up at the Togruta, who is still standing. Ahsoka is looking at both of them with a smirk on her face. "He is a character. Always has been," she laughs. The smirk disappears, replaced by Fulcrum. Hera stands straight and faces her.

"General Tano, if this is about my disobedience of your orders....," she starts.

Ahsoka holds up her hand and cuts her off "First off, I am not a General," she says.

"I thought all Jedi were generals," Hera interrupted.

Ahsoka continues without missing a beat, "Secondly, I am not a Jedi. I never got past Padawan. You can call me Ahsoka, or Tano, or Fulcrum if you must. Thirdly, if I were a Jedi, I would say that we should live in the moment. Please sit down."

They both sit down, Ahsoka on the bunk and Hera on the single shaky chair. Apparently the furniture budget for the Rebellion is low.

"On the fourth hand, as my friend Dexter Jettster used to say, do you honestly think that I would be dressing you down while I am sitting here in a ratty bathrobe?" Ahsoka asks.

Hera laughs and visibly relaxes.

"How do you know Chopper, if I may ask?"

Ahsoka gets up and walks over to her locker and pulls out what appears to be a white military dress shirt and an old, nearly empty bottle. She sits back on the bunk and opens the bottle. The bottle is well-worn and looks to be expensive - Whyren's reserve. She holds it out to Hera. Hera shakes her head. Tano takes a healthy swig.

"I was his commanding officer for a brief time."

Hera absorbed this. "I found him during the campaign on Ryloth. His Y-wing had crashed and his pilot was dead. He was heavily damaged."

"That was Retread. Pounder 3. We declared him missing in action. He held the ship steady enough for his gunner, Stock, to eject. We never found the bomber."

"I am sorry. I didn't report him. I was afraid I would get in trouble with my Father for being out. I was very young. If it is any consolation, we honored him in our traditions and buried him with honor. We didn't know the clones' traditions for their dead.

Hera then looked as if she had seen a ghost. "I didn't know you fought in the Ryloth campaign."

"I was involved in the naval campaign that broke through the blockade. I was only on Ryloth for a brief visit that time. I met your Father during that visit. He wanted to thank the pilots that helped break through the Seppies' blockade. She puts down the bottle. "Look, do you mind if I get dressed? This robe has ghosts attached to it."

"Please, do what you need to do to be comfortable," Hera replies, "we don't have to talk about this, if you don't want to."

"No, it's alright. Give me a minute. Just haven't talked about it in a while." She stands and turns her back. She throws off the robe. As she pulls on a pair of shorts, Hera glances at her back. Ahsoka's muscled, orange back and shoulders tell a great deal of her story. There are blaster scars, electrical burns, knife wounds and even what looks like a lightsaber wound or two. Hera is transfixed. The scars don't mar her otherwise clear skin, but tell a story of life - conflict and survival. Ahsoka covers them with the dress shirt. and sits down again.

When the Togruta looks up, her blue eyes are troubled. She pulls the bottle to her and takes a swig.

"That is a well-used bottle," Hera says, hoping to lighten the mood.

"Considering that this is only the fifth bottle of alcohol I have owned since age sixteen, not too much," she replies. "All of them have been given to me. I only drink from them on special days or especially painful days."

Apparently Hera's attempt didn't work so much.

Ahsoka shakes her head, as if trying to get something out of it. She exhales, squares her shoulders, and relaxes.

"You celebrate the breaking of the blockade on Ryloth, right?"Ahsoka asks Hera.

"Yes, it is one of the days that we celebrated openly before the Empire came. More privately now, even though the Empire still recognizes it. It is not the same when you are not free."

"Well, that is one of the days that I hit this bottle. Hard."

"Why? I would think that this would be one of your greatest triumphs."

Ahsoka takes a sip. She does not even appear to be the slightest bit affected after downing at least a quarter of the bottle.

"Because I disobeyed orders and got eight of my ten pilots killed in the initial attack. I also didn't break off the attack on the capital ships in time to keep one Republic destroyer from being flamed and the other two being heavily damaged by fighters. We had to sneak away with our tails between our legs."

Hera looks at her in disbelief. But then a memory pops up like a supernova in her brain from the mists of memory. She remembers her father singling out two figures for particular thanks. One, a tall, young Jedi with a scar through one eye. The other - a short Togruta, dressed in an impossibly exposing outfit. She remembered looking on at the young Togruta and listening to her father extol her piloting skills.

"But, I remember you, now. You were so young, so..."

"Inappropriately dressed?" Ahsoka manages to smirk through her memories.

"I was going to say powerful and impressive, but now that I think about it, what were you thinking with that outfit? A tube top?"

"It took me a year or two to realize that Togruta hunting attire might not be the best choice for space battles and living with several thousand hormonal teenage-equivalent males. Fortunately when my "rack," as one of my less tactful soldiers called it started to grow in, I couldn't wear it anymore. I changed into something marginally better. My people don't exactly worry about modesty too much. Something about living closely in the clans. "She grins for a half-second."Although I am still waiting on the rack to grow in more."

Hera recognized the respite from Ahsoka's painful memories in the humor. Ahsoka's expression sobers.

"I remember the pain and shame that I felt, when my Master talked to me and reprimanded me. The worst part was when he said that he understood. His Master despaired of him being able to act without improvising his response to orders, but he said that I had to be able to see the bigger picture in order to be able to improvise when needed."

They are quiet. Ahsoka picks up the bottle and realizes that it is empty. She puts it back down. She pours some of Chopper's lukewarm tea and makes a face when she sips some. "I lost my temper with my Master when he was trying to get me to help him with some crazy scheme he was coming up with to break the blockade. I blew up at him and he sent me to my quarters to cool off." The warrior twisted her hands in the tail of the uniform dress shirt. She pulls her legs under her on the bed, making her resemble that young apprentice of years' past. 

"I came out of my brooding when the General Quarters horn started up," Ahsoka remarked. "I went to the hangar deck where Anakin, my Master, was his usually energetic self. He had come up with a plan to risk his life to save the day. Again. He was counting on me to save his ass. He gave me command of the _Resolute_ , the flagship and told me to come up with a plan to pull him out and defeat the other ships after he drove the other destroyer into the Seppie flagship."

"What!?"

"Yep. Pure Anakin Skywalker. Flashy, with lots of noise, but brilliant."

Ahsoka again paused. "I went to the bridge and tried to figure out how I was going to pull us out of this clusterfuck. Rex and the navigating officer of the Resolute stood there at the holotank shooting down every plan that we came up with. Especially if it came from the Padawan who just got most of her men killed."

"For the first time ever, I looked at the tactical display and the way was clear to me," that same Padawan said. "Maybe I used the Force; maybe I just stopped and looked at the big picture, whatever it was, I saw it. Rex, I could tell, was still skeptical, I could tell, but he seemed willing to try. The navigator, however was downright dismissive. I had to pull rank. Fortunately, at that moment, Admiral Yularen chose that moment to come up from the medbay and support me."

She thought for a moment. "That was probably a hard moment for him. I had been Skywalker's mouthy apprentice who did most of her thinking with her lightsaber - just like her master."

Hera looks at her with a smile. "I read a textbook on the strategy involved that Sabine brought with her from the Academy. It never said that the person who commanded the battle and came up with the strategy was you. It did say that this was the first time it was ever used.”

This time Hera got the full-on Smirk with a follow-up eye roll. "Yeah, the Empire isn't exactly wanting to say how great the Jedi were after they spent years accusing them of eating babies and wanting to kill Palpatine." Her eyes and face were light, but her tone was hard.

"Did you lead the bombers in the flanking maneuver?" Hera asked. "Is that how you became Chopper's commanding officer?"

"Yes. After we took out the blockade ships, we still had ordnance and fuel. I decided to go looking for ground targets of opportunity to support the landing. We took out several grounded Trade Federation ships that could've caused problems for Master Kenobi's and Master Windu's assault ships."

She got up and got some water from the sink. She sat down again and continued. "That's when Retread got hit. He flew out away from the heavily populated areas and let his gunner eject." She bowed her head. "He was the only casualty of the Y-wing attack. He was called Retread because he started out as a groundpounder. He worked his way to get the Kaminoans to let him try for pilot. He liked singing those Mandalorian battle hymns that the _Vod'e_ loved so much. He had a beautiful voice."

There is a long silence, broken only by their breathing and the sounds of the ship.

Ahsoka breaks the silence. She closes her eyes and begins to recite in a harsh, but strangely elegant language - " _Ni su'cuyi, gar kyr'adyc, ni partayli, gar darasuum_ Axe, Slammer, Tucker, Fang, Kong, Thunder, Rider, Sage, Retread.

Hera realizes that she has been holding her breath during the entire recitation. Ahsoka grows fuzzy in her vision as her eyes tear. "That was beautiful," she whispers, not wanting to spoil it.

Ahsoka opens her eyes. Her own blue eyes seem to be brighter.

"What was that?" Hera asks. "If I may, was that Mando'a?"

"Yes," Ahsoka replies. "It is the Remembrance. I recite it daily." "Although,” she says archly, "the list has gotten so long that many of them are unnamed but Remembered. There are only a few other names."

"What does it mean?"

"It translates as I am alive, you are dead. As long as I remember you, you are eternal."

"That is powerful," Hera breathes.

"Yes, it is," Ahsoka agrees. "The _Mando'ade_ believe that the dead are still with them, that they have just gone to scout ahead—‘marching far away’. I think that it kept my brothers going on many dark days to believe that."

Hera gathers up her courage. "Ahsoka, may I speak freely?"she asks.

"I encourage it Hera," Ahsoka replies with a level gaze. 

"You speak of your failure and the deaths that followed from your disobedience. Are you trying to tell me something? Something about my disobedience of your orders when I decided to rescue Kanan from Mustafar.?"

"I wish that I was that wise, " Ahsoka laughs. She turns serious. "Not really." "I have made my peace with my mistakes. It took me a few more instances of disobedience and rashness, but I learned from them. Or at least," she said with a renewal of the Smirk, "I learned to channel my rashness."

"I have also made peace with your decision. I know that I said that we had to look at the larger Rebellion, that it is bigger than one person, but you looked at that larger Rebellion and saw that all of our ideals weren't worth a damn if we don't remember the people. It's something that the Jedi forgot and one of the reasons I walked away from the Order. Also, the fact that we have another who has received Force training from the Jedi temple, who can help train a new generation, might just give us an edge."

Ahsoka takes a deep breath. "Here endeth the speech," she says.

Hera takes another deep breath. She seems to still be mustering her courage.

Ahsoka smiles. "I know you have more to say."

"Ahsoka, you and your pilots..." She falters. "What you did saved Ryloth to live and fight another day," she stammers. "If that invasion hadn't happened then, we would probably be finished as a race."

The Togruta's lekku stripes go through the spectrum of blue.

"But for me personally," the pilot continued, "Watching those bombers roll in, inspired me to want to soar with them and help people."

Ahsoka cannot find words.

To save her, Hera nods. "It's almost morning, Ahsoka. Would you like to get some breakfast?"

"That would be nice, Captain Syndulla, but let's include the rest of your crew. I haven't had enough time to really talk with them, and I may be in and out for a while. I want to get to know them more than what you included in their briefing. Let's grab them, grab some breakfast from the mess deck, or better yet, the wardroom and take it to Kanan and Ezra. I am sure that he is ready for something other than medbay food." "And," she says with a gleam and a brief flash of her sharp canines that speak of thousands of years of hunting meat, "I hear that they have fresh sausage, bacon, and eggs in the wardroom. None of that reconstituted crap. That stuff always tears me up."

Her excitement shows a glimpse of the headstrong, energetic teenager that saved Hera's people and lived and died in her heart with her soldiers' lives. It makes Hera vow that every foraging mission that the Spectres go out on, bacon, eggs, and sausage will always be on the list. As well as a Clone Wars-era aged Corellian whiskey, every once in a while.

"That sounds like a plan, Commander," Hera says. As she says it, she sees Ahsoka narrow her eyes at the title. She meets the ex-Padawan's "Commander" gaze squarely and doesn't back down.

Ahsoka blinks first, says something vaguely Huttese under her breath and turns toward her clothing and armor.


End file.
